Total Transformation

Total Transformation

A successful technology entrepreneur wants to keep

complacency at bay. He's hoping a new business model - and a large international expansion - does the trick.

When Ajit Nair founded a computer services firm five years ago, he thought of the business as something similar to being the architect of a new home: Design the system and move on to the next project.

But after growing his Tampa-based IT company, ProV International, to almost $20 million in annual revenues and nearly 500 worldwide employees, Nair is fighting off two dangerous foes: Complacency and the slumping domestic economy.

Nair's response has to been to reboot ProV's business plan, from being solely the architect of other company's IT systems to becoming the architect, builder and, most importantly, repairman when things go wrong. Now the company, which has less than 50 employees working out of its Tampa headquarters, aims for three-year contracts with all of its customers.

Nair says the business model change, targeting more long-term contracts, will provide a hedge in case the domestic economic slump lingers. Says Nair: "It gives a lot of stability to the business."

And the business model transformation, combined with the company's aggressive international expansion, provides ProV a portal for even more growth. The company had about $17 million in 2007 revenues, a dramatic increase over the $300,000 in revenues it had when Nair founded it in 2003.

Attempting to change the business model of a $20 million company, however, isn't without its pitfalls. "We used to be a people dependent company," says Nair. "Now we are a process dependent company."

In practice, that means ProV's inside computer staff need to be more software savvy, as opposed to simply working on other systems. Nair has made proprietary software development, in which the company creates systems to match its client's IT needs, a top priority. And on the sales side, ProV has had to craft an entire new pitch approach, as a three- or five-year services contract is much different than a one-time set up fee.

For his work in leading and growing Pro V, Nair, 39, was recently nominated for a pair of Stevie Awards - a national business awards contest considered by some to be the "Oscars" of business. Nair has also been recognized for his work closer to home, where he is a past Review 40 under 40 recipient and a onetime runner-up for the Review's Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

Nair, a native of India who moved to Tampa with his family, started thinking about his company's business transformation about 18 months ago. He spent the past year working out the kinks.

Meanwhile, the company has grown much bigger outside the U.S., with clients in countries such as Belgium, Finland and Sweden. About half of the company's employee base works in the Philippines, where it recently completed work on a new factory.

The factory is the company's new focal point for software development and research into new products. It has also become a key location for testing new equipment and training new employees, both of which Nair says are must-dos for an outsourcing company.

And is it looks into 2009, the company continues refining and adding people to its off-shore outsourcing program, a fact that comes down to pure dollars: Nair says it would cost him $100,000 a year in salary and benefits to pay an IT worker in Tampa to do what an employee overseas does for $30,000.

-Mark Gordon